Our winter salmon fishery continues to be strong with keeper size salmon between 7 and 14 pounds. Along with these keepers we are releasing a lot of under size salmon that are under the 24 1/2 inch slot limit. We have been targeting both English Bay and the Bowen Island areas. The schools of bait, which have been predominately herring, have been moving around a lot more in the last few weeks. This has meant that we have been moving around more targeting where the salmon are feeding. If you find the bait schools chances are you will find the fish.
We have been using mainly spoons with flashers. All our gear is of the glow variety. Try spoons such as 3 1/2 to 4 inch Midnight Rider, Green Glow, Trailhead, Skinny Gees, and Herring Aid. Fish close to the bottom. Depths of 80 to 150 feet in the Bay and 120 to 200 feet around Bowen Island. We are also seeing a few fish that are suspended 20 to 40 feet off the bottom. These suspended fish will tend to rise to those levels more at slack tides.
Prawning has been good with catches varying depending on the areas that we are targeting. Crabbing has picked up a lot with the annual closure of the commercial crab season. This improvement trend will continue as we move into the spring. Our company offers a steamer on the dock so if you can eat some of your crab catch when you come in from your charter. We can also pack your catch to travel. Give us a call for some great winter action.

Tight Lines - Kevin Addie

Fall Fishing  November 18th 2016

October and November have proven to be a very productive start to our winter season. Our charters have seen good numbers of Chinook salmon on almost all our trips. These salmon have been bigger then they normally are this time of the year. We have seen very few fish under the 20-inch size. The majority of our salmon have been between 22 and 24 inches with keeper size fish being caught on most charters. The biggest salmon of the year, for our staff, has been a pair of 30-inch (12 pound) winter Chinook.
There seems to be a large amount of baitfish around this winter season. These schools consist of both Anchovy and Herring. Most of the bait that we are seeing in the salmon when we clean them are of the four to six inch range. This is a good size for this time of the year. The quantity of baitfish that we are seeing is consistent with what we have seen for a last few years. There has been a concerted effort to restock Herring in both Howe Sound and False Creek. Thanks to the efforts the of many people that have strived to make this happen. These endeavors have definitely produced results. There has also been large schools of Anchovy in our local waters. Some of these bait schools that we have seen over the last year have gone on for hundreds of meters. The salmon that we have around this time of the year are looking to feed and grow. More bait means more salmon and they will stay around and feed.
Our charter boats have been fishing both English Bay and Bowen Island. The English Bay charter is five hours and has seen 6 to 12 hook ups per charter. These fish have been in the 20 to 25 inch range or 3 to 9 pounds. Bowen Island is a six to eight hour charter and has seen 2 to 7 hook ups per trip. Some of these fish have been into the 30 inch or 12 pound range. The salmon will just continue to get bigger in the weeks to come. We set crab traps on all our charters. If you do a six to eight hour charter then you have the option of setting prawn traps.
Our staff has been running gear that consists of glow spoons and glow flashers. Green has been the colour to use when running spoons. Although four-inch spoons will work everything we have been using are in the 3 to 31/2 inch spoons. Trail Head, Glow Green, Skinny Gees, and if you want to run a different colour try a Midnight Rider. We have run most of our gear on the bottom.

Tight Lines - Kevin Addie

Spring Fishing  June 1st 2016

Well it is the end of May and fishing has been good but on fishing grounds that we normally do not have as our main targets this time of the year. Our charter boats are normally off the south side of Bowen Island on an area called the Hump. This year that area has not started to produce yet. On a normal spring fishery we would start fishing the Hump at the beginning of May and stay on it for more than a month. There are some good reports of salmon starting to move down from up the Georgia Strait so the Hump may still start to produce. The next week or so will tell. Most of the Chinook salmon runs have been holding closer to the islands and reefs. The one area that has been a big surprise has been the Howe Sound area. Defense Island at the top of the sound has been good especially for some bigger fish. This is common for this time of the year and should continue with the Squamish run of Chinook salmon still to come. The Hole-in-the-Wall area is the big surprise with good fishing for a month and a half now. We have had many days with multiple keepers in the 8 to 25 pound range. Along with these fish we are also releasing a lot of under size Chinook. This area is a beautiful region to fish with snow capped mountains and usually calm waters. The depths that our staff has been fishing have been between 35 feet and 110 feet. Bait and spoons have both worked well.

Another area that has been producing well lately has been the Roger Curtis and Tunstall Bay region. This is an area that our company fishes a lot in the winter time but this spring it has produced right through the spring fishery. Lately this has been one of the best areas to fish. Also try fishing in close to Bowen Island on the Cowen Point and Seymour Bay areas. If you're fishing Bowen Island stay in tight to the island, as the salmon seem to be concentrating more on structure this year. Fish depth of 40 to 100 feet. The Bell Buoy area has been another fishery that has been consistent for months. We have been running our gear at depth of 40 to 120 feet. The Thrasher Rock area to Grande has had some excellent days in the last few weeks but the trick is to find the fish and on some days this has been easier said then done. I still thing that this area will start to produce well in the next few weeks.

To sum things up we have had some great days on the water lately but we have had to search a little more for our fish this year. Most of our gear that we are running has been of the glow variety. Spoons such as trailhead, midnight rider, mongoose, herring aid, Irish cream, and homeland security have all worked well. When we run bait we are using 5 1/2 inch anchovy in Ryhs Davis head holders. We have been running some hootchies but only on the Gulf Island side of the strait or in the middle of the strait.

Crabbing as been excellent and we have a steamer on the dock if you want to cook some of your catch when you come back in. We are not prawning right now as the commercial prawn season has now started.

Tight Lines - Kevin Addie

Spring Fishing  March 20th 2016

This winter and early spring has proven to be one of best fisheries we have seen in many years. Our company likes the winter Chinook season and our guests have been treated to some very active charters. So far, the month of March saw a push of larger Chinook salmon come into the bays and straits as they chased the large herring schools that are amassing to spawn. We have been targeting Chinook in Howe Sound, Bowen Island and English Bay. The Howe Sound area has produced some nice big salmon in the high teens range. Areas up the Sound such as Tunstill Bay, Water Fall, Grace, Salmon Rock, Cotton Point, and all the way to Defense Island are producing Chinook salmon at this time of the year. The trick up the Sound is to pay attention to the varying tides and know the fish are on the move and change areas.

In English Bay, we were fishing deeper inside the bay as the baitfish were in shallower waters. Recently, the salmon have moved to the outer reaches of the Bay, at Point Atkinson and especially the Bell Buoy. We have had some incredible charters lately with 15-20 plus hookups being the norm. The Chinook salmon have ranged from undersized, which we catch and release, to keeper salmon (8-20 lbs). As we move through the next month, we will start to concentrate on areas further off shore into the Straight Of Georgia.

Our staff has been running mostly spoons with flashers and bait is also working. Spoons such as nightrider, glow/green, trailhead, mongoose, and homeland security have given us good action. We use glow-in-the-dark style gear on all our spoons and flashers. Lately, our team is also starting to fish higher in the water column. Depths of 80 feet to 120 feet (in a 150 feet of water) is now typical but it depends on the day as the salmon will move up and down in the water column. We are starting to move away from 3 ½ inch spoons to the 4 inch spoons.

Dungeness Crabbing has been good and we set pots on all our charters. Prawning has also remained strong as we set prawn traps on longer 8-hour charters up Howe Sound. We have enjoyed chartering angers from all over the world and we invite you to join us to see what the West Coast has to offer!

Tight Lines - Kevin Addie

Winter Fishing  February 20th 2016

The fishing this winter started to improve a lot in late November and just seemed to keep rolling. We are now at the end of February and the Chinook Salmon have followed the herring that are spawning right into the bays and reefs up and down the south coast. We have harbor seals that hang out around our docks on a daily bases and they have been covered in herring spawn from eating it for almost two weeks. The commercial herring fleet has been running in and out of the harbor for weeks now. This event marks the start of the spring runs of salmon that are feeding on them. This event also marks a more consistent fishery for bigger salmon. Our company has moved to fishing a lot more in English Bay as the number of fish boated lately has been impressive. Most of our charters lately have been boating over twenty fish. Pretty well all these salmon have been under size therefore catch and release. A few of them have been keepers in the 7 to 11 pound range with the odd one in the mid teens. We have been fishing mid harbor to the Bell Buoy. The Capilano River to the Pink Apartment building has also produced some nice keeper sized fish.

Howe Sound has also been steady but we have had to chase the salmon around a little bit more. The bays from Tunstall to Grace Island To Defense Island have all been good on different days. The trick is to know where they will be on which tides.

Our chose of gear has started to change a little. We have not used bait all winter and some boats are starting to run bait now with the herring spawn starting. We have also started to run more 4-inch spoons where before it was all 31/2 inch. We are still running the same flashers and spoons that we have talked about in all our winter reports. Prawning has been good and although we had to search a little the crabbing has been good also.

Tight Lines - Kevin Addie

Winter Fishing  January 20th 2016

The mid winter fishery in both English Bay and Howe Sound has been producing very well. We have seen some keeper size fish in the 15 to 18 pound size range on our charters. There has been a 28-pound fish caught up Howe Sound by another company and this is the biggest size salmon of the winter season so far. The Howe Sound region has been where we have seen most of our charters travel to lately. The Water Fall, Tunstall Bay, and Grace Island have been our main areas up the sound. We have been hooking 4 to 8 times per charter. Our boats have been bringing back keepers on all our trips. The Howe Sound charter is 8 hours and has great scenery with lots of mountains and islands around you.

The English Bay trips have also been steady with some smaller fish and keepers into the mid teens. In this area we have been fishing mainly the QB marker and the Capilano River to the Pink Apartment building. We have been running all our gear near the bottom in depth of 80 feet to 210 feet depending on where we are fishing.

Our boats are using spoons and flashers. All our gear is of the glow in the dark variety. We have been using 31/2 inches spoons such as green glow, nightrider, cookies and cream, and homeland security. Prawning and crabbing sets have been excellent.